Day: April 17, 2015

We have what appears to be an act of eco-terrorism, (possibly attempted murder) in southwestern West Virginia, by what appears to be an anti-driller who has had a snap with reality. Mark Miller, a 39 year-old married father of two who works for oil and gas company HG Energy, was visiting a conventional oil well site in Lincoln County on Monday. Miller said in an interview he was at the well, which has a history of leaks, to take pictures of an existing leak. The well is located on state-owned land, in a rural wildlife management area. Miller, in an unmarked pickup truck, started to drive away when a “tall, lanky man dressed in camouflage, with black stuff rubbed all over his face” approached the truck. Miller stopped to see if he could help, assuming the man’s vehicle was broken down somewhere nearby. The man approached the passenger side window, didn’t talk but held up a recorder which played something about not drilling, and he stuck a gun through the window, pointing it at Miller’s head. Miller tried to knock the gun away and the man pulled the trigger, shooting Miller in the hand, shattering bones in his left hand…Continue reading

Another example of a “peaceful, non-violent” protest occurred yesterday in Philadelphia. City Councilman David Oh organized a meeting to discuss the feasibility of locating a facility inside city limits to liquefy and export natural gas. The city owns Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), the largest municipal-owned utility in the country. PGW already has a small LNG facility in the city, but currently it’s set up to import LNG, not export it. Councilman Oh wanted to explore the possibility of converting the site to export LNG. You may recall the corrupt Philly City Council nixed a potential deal to sell PGW to UIL Holdings (see Philly City Council Kills the Phila. Gas Works $1.86B Deal). Since that time, City Council members like Oh have tried to save face and figure out how they might turn around the near-bankrupt PGW. One of the most promising ideas is to set up a small exporting operation. A meeting to discuss that idea was held on the campus of Drexel University. A meaningful portion of those attending were anti-drilling nutters who wouldn’t shut up and had to be escorted out by Drexel security personnel. Yep, just more of your “peaceful, non-violent” types out to make a point…Continue reading

Look–we’ve written about this before and we’re not going to belabor the point–about pipeline companies using payola to buy support for the pipelines they plan to build through communities. The Constitution Pipeline did it last March in New York (see Constitution Pipeline Payments to Groups – Donations or Payola?). PennEast recently did it this March in southeast Pennsylvania and New Jersey (see PennEast Payola? Buying Support One Community at a Time). Now it’s Kinder Morgan’s turn. KM handed out checks this week in Wayne, Susquehanna, Pike and Luzerne counties in northeastern PA. It’s amazing how much good press, and good will, a $10,000 donation can buy you–especially when you give it to a school…Continue reading

Something a tad strange caught our eye. Yesterday America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) released a white paper (copy below) and held a conference call to step up pressure on the Obama Dept. of Energy–with pleas to do the right thing and grant final approval for a list of LNG export projects currently on the list. Some of those projects have been waiting years for a final approval. We knew all of that–but one of the projects named by ANGA on the call and in the white paper is Cove Point. Which made us scratch our head. We thought Cove Point was already was already fully approved by the plethora of government agencies, including DOE, that need to approve it. We reported that Dominion began construction of the facility last October (see Dominion Breaks Ground on Cove Point, MD LNG Export Facility). Just last month Dominion threw a big party to celebrate the project’s approval and future prospects with no less than the Japanese ambassador attending (see Dominion Needles Anti-Drillers by Throwing Party for Cove Point LNG). But now here’s ANGA saying the DOE needs to provide a “final” approval for Cove Point. What gives?…Continue reading

Earlier this week we had some fun telling you about Hilcorp’s request to drill under a quarter of an acre of a cemetery in Columbiana County, OH (see Zombie Alert! Hilcorp Wants to Drill Under OH Cemetery). Fairfield Township trustees needed some extra time to consider the matter. After finding out that if they didn’t sign it would prevent a lateral from being drilled, affecting neighboring landowners (cutting them out of royalties–no lateral, no money), all but one trustee voted to sign the deal. The one holdout thought the town should get more in a signing bonus/royalties. He thinks $500 for a quarter acre and 15% royalties isn’t enough…Continue reading

It doesn’t seem to happen often enough, which is why this is noteworthy: The Erie County, OH Board of Commissioners (with three members) sent an official letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to endorse and support the proposed $1.5 billion NEXUS Gas Transmission pipeline from Ohio through Michigan and into Canada (see NEXUS Gas Pipeline Pre-Files with FERC, New Details Come to Light). The NEXUS, like all other proposed pipelines in the northeast, has encountered plenty of opposition (see CORNy Opposition to NEXUS Pipeline in Eastern Ohio). But all three Erie County commissioners want FERC to know their county stands behind the pipeline and welcomes it through their neck of the woods–which means new pipeline trenches would be dug in places where pipelines have not previously been installed. The commissioners are rolling out the red carpet for this “greenfield” project coming through their county. Refreshing!…Continue reading

An update to a story we brought you yesterday about Gulfport Energy. We told you that Gulfport is both floating 7.5 million shares of new stock and floating IOUs (senior notes) to raise money (see Gulfport Looks to Raise $600M+ with Notes & New Stock Offering). At the time Gulfport had not announced the price per share they were looking for and we theorized that if they got the current price of $49.15 they would haul in around $368 million from new stock sales. Gulfport updated the offering. It’s now 9.5 million shares and Gulfport has announced they’re looking for $47.75 per share. Consulting our handy calculator, that would generate $454 million…Continue reading